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News on the alternative energy front

This is NOT intended to turn into a political issue. Just wanted you guys to see this article. I can't vouch for it's value, but it's interesting at the least, and maybe great news. Let me know what you think.

Great point. I didn't think of that. I believe the usual life span of a panel is about 20 years. Hmmm. They mention that the balloons "may" last for up to 5 years, but are routinely to be changed out yearly.

The article mentions how inexpensive the materials are to build them. I wonder what the manufacturing cost is comparatively. That may be the real story.

CPV's are the only way to get serious power. But if
this cheap set up delivers then WOW!! Most any
homeowner could justify one.

You're welcome. I'll be interested to see if there is a private home use application for them. The article implies that they would be used in large "power plant" configurations to supply power on a large scale. Is that viable?

Oh, thanks Sundance. Let me know if you learn anything else interesting about them. There's probably more info out there that I am not aware of. I just thought it may be of interest to several people here.

I went to the homepage of the company, they don't plan on making the system available to anyone other than power companies. They also are not a public company and are not interested in any investors other than what they already have. They are interested in leasing or purchasing properties which might meet their criteria for building arrays.

"A good day is when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz (Burt's Buzz)

There are other huge issues with having things way up in the air. The cell phone companies found that instead of cell phone towers they could have balloons acting as towers way up in the sky eliminating dead spots and increasing coverage with less equipment. The problem is not that it would work and be cheap but the array of problems associated with having the balloons up and dealing with the various govt. agencies from federal to local codes. It proved to be so much red tape that the idea is currently not moving forward. I suspect that this will encounter much of the same resistance from the same govts that are funding the developments...crazy world we live in.